July Is National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month

Celebrating National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month

To celebrate Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, the Steve Fund has created a special page on its Web site to feature new videos, expert interviews, coping tips and other information to raise awareness about the mental health and emotional well-being of students of color. The content will also be featured on the Steve Fund’s Facebook page and Twitter account. In addition it will be featured on this Web site’s homepage throughout the month of July.

Bebe Moore Campbell

In May of 2008, the US House of Representatives announced July as Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. The resolution was sponsored by Rep. Albert Wynn [D-MD] and cosponsored by a large bipartisan group to achieve two goals: Improve access to mental health treatment and services and promote public awareness of mental illness, and name a month as the Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month to enhance public awareness of mental illness and mental illness among minorities. Bebe Moore Campbell was an author, advocate, co-founder of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Urban Los Angeles and national spokesperson, who passed away in November 2006.

People of color still deserve this special month dedicated to raising awareness on this subject: On its homepage, minorityhealth.hhs.gov, the Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services gives a succinct and poignant explanation: “Minorities are less likely to receive diagnosis and treatment for their mental illness, have less access to and availability of mental health services and often receive a poorer quality of mental health care.”

As the nation’s only non-profit focused on the mental health and emotional well-being of students of color, the Steve Fund will celebrate Minority Mental Health Awareness Month and use it for an extra push to raise awareness. It will be easy for you to join us and help spreading the word, by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter or inviting others to visit us on this Web site.

On our special “National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month” page, we will be featuring special content.

Video interviews produced by the Steve Fund with national mental health experts, offering diverse perspectives on the subject of student of color mental health

The first Steve Fund Podcast featuring the Steve Fund’s Executive Director, Dr. Terri Wright, in a conversation with two students of color on their experience in regard to mental health on campus.

With people of color forming the majority of Americans by 2044 (for children already by 2020), the future success of our nation as a whole will depend on the mental health and emotional well-being of all student populations, and on colleges and universities to provide support appropriately. Please follow our activities and help us increase awareness, by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter or visiting us here on the Web again. (Please use #askaboutsteve and #minoritymentalhealth as hashtags on Twitter and Facebook).